Unauthorized
by kayono
Summary: The large satellite dishes and other network-monitoring devices were just funny embellishments to the building- which did not explain why there was a group of people trying to sneak in the back way. Warning: prompts in use! Tamers


_**Unauthorized**_

**Prompt:** "Restricted to unauthorized personnel" and _(and? Uhoh)_ "Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat wherever they like"

**Disclaimer:** Me? Own? You're high.

**Warnings:** Considering the prompts, don't except any sort of coherency and/or sanity from this piece.

* * *

**Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building**

**0526 Hours**

Tokyo was a world class city, known throughout the international community as a centre of technology, fashion, architecture and dining. The tall buildings, the ancient homes and palaces, the beautiful sakura fields and the requisite parks scattered throughout the different _kus_, or wards, came together to form a city quite unlike any other in the world.

Of everything in the city, two buildings with their well-known designs stood out more than the rest: the Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Of the two, though, only one was located in Shinjuku-_ku_, and only one had been featured on the world-wide broadcasts of three years prior.

Not that everyone cared about that. To the majority of the residents of Shinjuku, what happened three years before was completely irrelevant. Of course, occasionally they would spot a few now-teens and people would point and stare, but that was to be ignored (such would be the situation if anyone was broadcast naked on world wide television).

So, on the grounds that the month during which the D-Reaper invaded there were a number of other problems happening that explained it, and the invasion itself was a complete fluke, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was simply the Government building, and did _not_ house a one-time top secret organization known as Hypnos, nor their allies in the war that wages among all hackers and programmers, the Monster Makers. It was a public building where civic duties and problems were seen to, and those large satellite dishes and other network-monitoring devices were just funny embellishments to the building.

Which did _not_ explain why there was a group of people—those aforementioned teens, actually—trying to sneak in the back way.

"Remind me why we're going in the back way?"

"Well, we have to be stealthy, you know. If they catch us on video we're screwed."

"We'll be screwed anyways, you know. It's not like anyone else would have the motive to do this."

"Really? I heard some people complaining a couple days ago about the government… they'd be pretty obvious suspects, too."

"Yeah, if anyone _else_ heard them. Face it: we'll be the prime suspects."

"They deserve it."

"…how blunt."

"How true."

"How about you guys shut up so I can get us into the building?"

The other three stared at the blue-haired teen openly as he continued to work on the security device on the door… and muttering to himself about the maturity of his teammates.

"Aw, did Henry get up on the wrong side of reality this morning?"

"Takato, you might be my best friend, but that doesn't mean I won't hurt you."

The teen in question, a brown-haired, crimson-eyed teen with a lithe and deceptive build, 'meeped' and dodged behind the final male in their group.

"Ryo, save me!"

Also brown-haired, but this time with brown eyes, Ryo rolled his eyes and stepped sideways, crossing his arms over his chest as he left Takato open to Henry's revenge. "Yes, like I'd actually get in the way. Do I _look_ suicidal to you?"

"Um… no comment?" Takato responded slowly, beginning to edge away from the carefully controlled glare both Ryo and Henry were now aiming at him.

"No, you're not suicidal, Ryo," the only female in their group, a fiery violet eyed redhead, retorted, leaning against the wall beside the door Henry was working on. "Takato's the suicidal one."

"Hey!"

"Agreed," Henry and Ryo chorused.

Takato looked about ready to complain again, but a silent glare from her shut him up faster and easier than the boys.

_Click_

"Alright, we're in," Henry announced, straightening. "Just be careful—I only disabled security around here. If you see another locked door, don't try to open it."

"Got it."

They made their way inside, quickly coming to a door on their left.

"These are the emergency fire escape stairs," Henry whispered to them, resting his hand on the handle. "We need to use these to get around."

"Won't the doors connected to them set off the alarm when we open them?" Takato asked. Both the other two nodded, a look of surprise on their faces for agreeing with the Goggleheaded teen.

Henry sighed, opening the door wide. "How do you think Hypnos operatives move around from their operations floors at the top of the towers and their labs in the basement?"

"…good point."

"Alright, two up, two down," Ryo decided, looking up and down the stairwell. "If you don't find anything, head towards where the others are. We meet back here in two hours."

"Too risky," and this time, once again to their surprise, it was Takato speaking. "If we meet back here, we might draw attention. Say three hours back at the hideout."

"Done," they nodded.

Henry began making his way up the stairs. "I want to see what I can find around the operations rooms. It would make sense to have some up there. Whose coming with?"

The three left exchanged looks, Ryo sighed and stepped up to follow Henry. "As much as I would love to go with you, Rika, I know that you're the only one who can keep Takato from doing something too stupid."

"Hey, he showed some glimmer of intelligence just now," Rika retorted, but draped a friendly arm around the teen in question shoulders. The look on her face was anything but. "But you're right. We don't need him setting off any alarms, do we?"

"You're talking about me like I'm not here," Takato complained, though there was a small smile on his face. "Alright, we'll head towards the labs. See you guys in three hours."

"Good luck!"

"We'll need it," Rika muttered, pushing Takato downwards.

* * *

**0551 Hours**

"Well?"

"25…."

"Come on! You broke into their security systems, couldn't you have pulled up schematics?"

Henry rolled his eyes, motioning with his hands to get Ryo to keep it down. "Yes, because they _haven't_ seen the thousands of spy movies and, like the wonderfully helpful clichéd villains they are, have both the security system and building schematics on the same server. Ryo, we're dealing with _Hypnos_ and the _Monster Makers_. The people who helped to create and maintain the network? They wouldn't make it so easy."

"It was just a suggestion…." Ryo muttered, sounding dejected. On the other hand, he looked like he was having the time of his life. It was a few more minutes before he spoke again. "Alright… so, how many more floors do we have to climb up, while dodging our dear Hypnos friends?"

"…do you really want to know?" Henry asked, nodding at the sign on the wall proclaiming the current exit to be to the 27th floor.

"Yes."

"…at least thirty more."

Ryo's cursing echoed down the stairwell.

* * *

**0553 Hours**

Takato poked his head out the door, carefully scouting the hallway he and Rika had decided to check out.

Rika, for her part, just rolled her eyes, having detected the faint humming of the Mission Impossible Theme. "If what Tao told Henry is true, they haven't used these labs since Juggernaut, Gogglehead. Move it."

"You can never be too sure who is on the enemy's side," Takato joked, but stepped out easily into the hallway. "So, you want to split up or stick together?"

"We would get our search done faster if we split up…."

Takato was already moving towards one end of the hallway they were in.

"…but that would defeat the purpose of me coming with you. Besides, the more of us wandering around, the better the chance that one of us will get caught."

Takato masterfully hid his sigh, instead turning around to smile at his companion. "Alright then! Where to first?"

Rika snorted, stepping around him and starting down the hallway. "Where else? The first door we see."

* * *

**0625 Hours**

"Wow… this place…"

Rika looked up from where she was examining some of the panels to see her 'partner' casually strolling along a bridge over a giant pit in the floor. "Careful, Gogglehead. I'm sure someone out there would be sad if you fell in."

"Funny."

They lapsed back into silence, one of the ones they were so used to: uncomfortable for everyone else to witness, but surprisingly relaxing for them.

"…hey, Rika?"

"Hm?"

She could practically_hear_ him bite his lip, not because sounds echoed in the room (which they did), but because the way he had asked her name was one she was frighteningly familiar with. It was the tone of voice that either said, _"Um… I just made a huge mistake,"_ or,_"You're probably going to hit me for asking a stupid question, but I still want to ask it."_ With Takato, it often was a combination of the two.

"…what do you think Hypnos did with the digimon it captured?"

That was news to Rika. "Captured? I thought they just deleted all of them."

Takato shook his head, walking towards the edge of the bridge closest to her, leaning over the edge. "There was one time… Guilmon and I were fighting a DarkLizamon. We won and were about to finish it off, but Yamaki and his agents appeared right then and took the DarkLizamon away. He threatened to take Guilmon away, too then."

She heard him give a quick bark of laughter, the sound echoing all the more because of the pit. "Looks like he kept his promise," he continued sardonically.

"Gogglehead!" Rika hissed at him, worried somewhat about his mind frame, but mostly about how far over he was leaning.

"I bet they probably did all sorts of experiments on DarkLizamon," he continued, his face an emotionless mask. "They probably threw her in this pit and zapped her and took her apart, and—"

"Takato!" Rika yelled at him. She surprised both herself and Takato. On later reflection she realized that it probably wasn't the best way to snap him out of his funk.

So surprised was he that he began flailing, most of his weight having been balancing on the railing over the pit. He nearly fell forward, was able to shift enough weight backwards to prevent it, and fell, ungracefully, on his bottom.

Rika was at his side in an instant. "Takato…!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he assured her, looking up with his usual goofy smile, even if it was somewhat muted. "I'm fine! See?"

She did see, and promptly whacked him for it. "You idiot! Will you stop worrying me!"

"Ow….!"

"Geeze! See? I was right! If we weren't here to look out for you, you _would_ get yourself killed!"

Takato, massaging his head, gave a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry… hey! I would not!"

She ignored him, walking over to the control system again. "Whatever. It looks like there's nothing here we can use, so let's get moving."

Takato pulled himself back to his feet, looking one last time into the pit. "…alright."

"Move it Gogglehead!"

"Eeep! Yes ma'am!"

* * *

**0633 Hours**

Henry and Ryo sighed, glad to have finally made it to the appropriate floors. "Gah… I thought you said thirty!" Ryo complained.

"I thought I said thirty, too," Henry replied, glaring at the sign that said '64' above his head. "Though I guess extra-long flights of stairs are still considered just one floor…."

"What kind of rooms do they have in this building if we have to go up five flights of stairs to get from one floor to the next?"

"Well, if the Hypnos monitoring room is an example…." Henry began. He shut up pretty fast as noise from above caught their attention.

Ryo, slowly, made his way over to the centre of the stairs, looking up through the small gap at the approximate location of the sounds.

"…_can't believe they won't let us use the elevators to get down there..."_

"_I can't believe they're making us go down there anyways."_

"_So early too, eh? Systems check my butt..."_

"_Whatever. Let's just get this over with."_

The two teens shared a look of horror, immediately dodging through the door they were sitting in front of, offering praises to the gods and Sovereign for the lack of life on the other side.

The door shut just as the two Hypnos agents reached their landing, continuing on without any sort of trouble.

Ryo pulled Henry over to him and hissed in the other teen's ear. "If they're heading down to do systems checks…."

Henry, however, had already come to that conclusion. "We need to let Rika and Takato know somehow!"

Ryo rolled his eyes, following Henry as he began making his way down the hall. "You'd think with his imagination, Takato would have made us have some sort of 'secret signal' or something, as a just-in-case…."

"Takato can be selective about what he imagines," Henry retorted, dodging in, then out of the first door they reached. "What matters now is we find a phone."

Ryo raised an eyebrow, following Henry into the next room (which turned out to be a conference room, no telephone in sight). "A phone?"

"Yeah," Henry replied, "we find one, and then hope that Rika has her cell on and that the signal can reach it."

* * *

**0649 Hours**

"And the two secret agents made their way stealthily down the hallway that was filled with booby traps—ow!"

Rika sighed, rubbing her fist. "Your head has gotten harder over the years. Now shut up."

Takato whimpered like a kicked puppy. Rika glared at him like she was about to kick him again.

"Okay! Shutting up now!"

They passed the stairwell entrance again, neither paying any attention to it besides to mark it as where they had come from and their escape route, either up or down; they had already been through five floors, most of them only containing more science or computer labs.

"Left or right?" Takato asked in a whisper, peering cautiously around the corner.

Rika stared at the fork, looking back and forth. "…let's go left. We'll go right when we're done with the left."

"…you don't think we're going to find it here?" Takato asked with a small pout.

"Of course not," Rika replied, already walking down the hallway. "Why would they have it all the way down here when their offices are over a fifty floors above us?"

"…good point," Takato muttered, following her quickly. "Hey, do you think—"

"Gogglehead, would you shut up?!"

They turned the corner and were lost from sight.

Five minutes later, the two agents Henry and Ryo had heard exited the stairwell, heading in the same direction Rika and Takato went, also pausing at the fork.

"Systems checks… bah," one of them cursed as they walked. "I say we get some coffee."

The other elbowed him, and started to walk to the left… until he saw the glance the other agent shot him.

"…fine. Coffee first. But if we're asked why we took so long…."

"Blame the stairs. You know even the higher-ups hating using the stairs."

They hung a quick right.

* * *

**0658 Hours**

"Aarrrggghhh!" Ryo grumbled, glaring at the office they were in. "What is with the people here?! Do they hate each other that much that they don't have phones to talk to one another?!"

Henry shrugged, making another tick on a small pad of paper he had 'borrowed' from a previous office with a pen, similarly confiscated.

Ryo looked over his shoulder. "What's that?"

"How many offices we've visited that don't have phones."

"…we've only visited…" he quickly counted, "fifteen offices?"

Henry silently flipped more pages over. Ryo sweatdropped as page after page was flipped. "…nevermind…"

* * *

**0704 Hours**

"Well… people should be coming to work soon," Rika muttered, glancing at the clock on her cell. She noted the lack of reception and glared at the contraption, but otherwise continued to follow Takato down the hallway. How he had gotten in the lead she had no idea.

Hearing no reply, she was about to make a sarcastic comment about his lack of observational skills and looked up to do so, expecting to be glaring at the back of his head.

Instead, she found herself glaring at an empty hallway.

Just for good measure, she continued to glare, even intensifying said glare. How dare the hallway kidnap Takato when she was about to ream him out! It would return the Gogglehead to her or suffer under her continued glaring. It _would_—

"Hey, Rika! Come look at this!"

Blinking, Rika turned around to see Takato's head poking out of a door a couple feet down the hallway. His casually smiling face only served to increase her anger.

She walked over to him and punched him in the head again.

"Ow…! Rika! What was that for?!"

"Don't let the hallway kidnap you again," she said by way of explanation, stepping into the mainly dark room to see what he had found.

It was mainly empty, but in the back was a large mass that looked like a combination of wires, computer screens, the occasional keyboard, and a large hunk of sphere-shaped metal.

"Ooookay… what's this?"

Takato shrugged, letting the door shut behind him. The room was cast into darkness, though red safety lights that you'd expect to find in a darkroom provided some light to see by.

Neither moved or spoke until their eyes adjusted to the dimness, at which point Rika made her way to the computer screens. "What does this thing say…?"

"I dunno. I just thought this looked really weird… and cool."

A long-suffering sigh met his ears. "You would say that."

The seemingly random numbers that scrawled constantly across the screen made no sense to her, nor did the alphanumeric sequences on the neighboring terminal.

_Click_

Rika was already raising her fist to hit Takato for touching whatever he touched—only to find that, once again, he had disappeared.

"…Gogglehead?"

"Back here!"

She followed his voice around to the back, surprised to find him crouched in the little space between the large techno-mass and the back wall. "What are you doing back there, Goggles?"

He grinned impishly up at her. "Look! We can pretend to be the 'Wizard of Oz' like this! …except that instead of a curtain we'd be the people behind the… whatever this is…."

"Sometimes, I'm not sure if you have a brain," Rika commented, but let curiosity get the best of her and she kneeled down, crawling along so that she was beside him. There wasn't much room, just enough for their slight frames to fit in without sitting on each other, but Rika was surprised by some of the things carved into the metal on the back. "Hey, what are these…?"

Takato blinked, letting his fingers trace over the lettering to help him 'read' whatever was engraved. "Letters…? No, words…. Weird. Wonder what it says…?"

"We can ask Tao or Yamaki later," Rika cut in, poking him in the side with her elbow. "We have a mission to finish."

"You're the one who said it would be up by the offices…."

"We still have some more floors to go through, goggles. I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to see more of what Yamaki has hidden down here."

Takato made something that sounded like a grunt of acknowledgement (though it was rather hard to tell with him), pressing his palm flat against the carved metal. "We shall be back one day to figure out what you say!"

"Gogglehead?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't make me say it again."

He instinctively flinched when she raised her fist. All Rika saw out of the corner of her eye was Takato nodding profusely.

"Shut up, I got it."

_Creak_

Both froze, able to make out a beam of light illuminating the floor.

"Hey, anyone in here?"

The low male voice surprised them, though while Rika remained perfectly silent, Takato jumped and nearly cracked his head on the contraption that loomed over them. This did, however, draw his attention back to the engravings, which had become somewhat legible in the faint light.

"Come on. You're hearing things again."

"I swear I heard someone…."

"Maybe you heard a ghost."

"Shut up."

Rika heard footsteps make their way further into the room, seeing shadows occasionally crossing the patch of light she assumed came from the open doors.

"…this system is fine."

"Locks are functional."

"Servers still disconnected from the network."

"Ha, can you imagine Yamaki's face if they weren't?"

"Don't even think about it."

"Alright, alright…. Well, these terminals check out."

"Same here."

"Do we care about the amount of dust in here?"

"It's not like anyone ever comes down here. Besides the kitchens, only the old labs and this _thing_ are down here. I say the more dust Juggernaut collects and the more it falls into disrepair the happier we'll all be."

"Alright. Let's head back up."

"I say we take the elevator."

"Good call."

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to your ghost friends?"

"Haha. Let's go. It's creepy in here."

"Alright."

The door shut again, and Rika and Takato had to wait for their eyes to become readjusted to the darkness before they could attempt to move. That wasn't what had them frozen in place, though.

"Juggernaut…" Takato whispered, almost reverently tracing the words he had finally been able to read.

Rika looked at him with a sick expression on her face. "The hell are you doing, goggles?"

"It's just… ah, nevermind. Come on—our target is in sight."

Rika blinked, finally remembering the rest of what the agents had said. "Ah… let's go."

Although they both agreed with what the two employees had said, neither would ever acknowledge it aloud, especially not in the same room as the monstrosity known as Juggernaut.

* * *

**0719 Hours**

Rika found herself, for only the second time in her life, horrified by the expression on Takato's face and mildly afraid of the normally easy-going young man.

"Takato…?"

He turned to her, an evil glint in his eyes.

"Come now, Rika. You're the Digimon Ice Queen. Why don't you help me create some chaos?"

She seriously considered turning him down on principle alone (no one could be completely in their right mind with _that_ look on their faces). Then again, there was their mission… and, for once, this wasn't likely to result in the potential loss of lives….

That, and they stilled owed Hypnos.

She worked up the emotions she had felt that day, remembering the pain and the sadness….

Opening her eyes (which she hadn't noticed she'd closed), a smirk reminiscent of her old fighting days appeared on her face.

"Is that an invitation?"

He jokingly offered her his arm. "Let us go and wreck some havoc, in payment for the _help_ that Hypnos has given us."

She took it, feeling herself falling into this role faster than she was comfortable with. "Yes, let's. We simply can't leave without leaving them a little _gift_…."

* * *

**0837 Hours**

Henry and Ryo were surprised to find Takato and Rika casually lounging around just outside the hideout. Though neither really looked too different from how they normally did, there was something about them that reminded Henry of an old saying… how did it go again?

"The cat that ate the canary, hm?" Ryo asked cautiously, sitting down on the steps just below Rika, who was leaning against a tree, and Takato, who was spread-eagled on the ground.

Henry sat on the grass as well, looking between the two. "Alright… what did you two do?"

"We, of course, accomplished our mission," Rika responded after a few moments of silence. She still looked troubled by something, but didn't seem quite ready to speak about it.

Henry and Ryo's eyes widened. "You mean… you _found_ it?" Ryo breathed, eyes glimmering with a very uncharacteristic excitement.

Rika nodded, Takato pushing himself up on his elbows. "Yep."

"And you—"

"Yes."

"_Really?"_

Takato laughed. "Yes! Why is that so surprising?"

"Did you see the agents?" Henry asked, finally remembering what had distracted he and Ryo from their mission.

Takato blinked, a carefully blank look coming over his face. "Well… sort of. We heard them, but we were hidden, so they didn't know we were there."

Ryo breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we won't be suspects if no one saw you…."

"For now," Rika replied testily, opening a single eye to glance at the three males on the ground.

"What did you two get up to?" Takato asked, curious. "We thought you would be here before us if you didn't find it."

"Er…"

Henry silently pulled out two notepads and laid them on the ground in front of Takato. The goggleheaded teen blinked at them, flipping through all three and expecting to see some kind of computer code or equations.

"Henry… what the heck do these lines mean?"

The teen in question shook his head, Ryo chuckling. "It seems like the people who work at Hypnos and the Monster Makers don't like talking to each other…."

Takato blinked again, a rather confused look appearing on his face.

"…?"

* * *

**1901 Hours**

Having left her house earlier, Rika had decided to drop into the Matsuda bakery to pick up Takato and some fresh bread on her way to their rendezvous point. Takato was perpetually late, and she didn't want to have to sit around for an hour waiting for him later.

"Good afterno—oh, Rika! How nice to see you again!"

She smiled pleasantly at the matriarch of the family, reaching out and plucking her favorite loaf from the racks and displays that crowded the small, if prosperous, family bakery. "It's nice to see you too, Mei-san. How have you and Takehiro-san been?"

Mei chuckled as she packed the bread into a sealed plastic bag, completely ignoring the cash register. "Oh, we're just fine, Rika. I think Takehiro's enjoying that new car a bit too much, though, since he's always asking for more errands to run."

Rika chuckled as well—it was well known that, as much as Takehiro loved baking, it was from him that Takato got his work ethic (or lack thereof).

"Oh! I guess you're headed to Henry's for that sleepover as well?" Mei questioned, noticing the duffle bag slung over Rika's shoulder.

"Yep. I came by to make sure that Takato gets there on time."

Mei laughed outright, turning towards the stairs after handing Rika the bread. "Finally! Someone else who knows what the word punctual means!" She turned her head to call up, and Rika instinctively covered her ears. Mei smiled at that, and nodded to the younger girl before calling her son.

"**TAKATO! YOU BETTER BE READY TO GO IN TWO MINUTES!"**

Instead of any vocal response, a loud _crash_ echoed from the upstairs. Rika laughed outright and stepped to the side as another customer came up with their purchase, looking at the two women in a mix of shock and confusion.

"Well now… thank you and come again!" Mei called after the retreating back, smiling at Rika again. "And don't worry about the bread. You help out Takato so much that I think we owe you!"

Rika shook her head, smirking. "He needs all the help he can get."

As if to prove her point, the young man they were talking about tumbled down the stairs, his hair a mess, goggles around his neck, shirt on backwards, and attempting to put his other sock on while zipping up his duffle bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He blinked up at his mother and teammate blankly. Finally registering who stood before him, he leaped at Rika, pulling her into what could loosely be considered a glomp (and it would have been, had his hands not been busying still doing everything else).

"Rika! Long time no see!"

"Ugh… get off me, Gogglehead! Hurry up and put your sock on—here, I'll take your bag—STOP COMPLAINING—and you can go find your shoes."

He froze, looking up at her sheepishly. "Right… shoes," and he was sprinting back up the stairs with a look of semi-panic on his face.

Rika sighed as Mei laughed. "I'm still surprised by how he forgets some things sometimes," Rika muttered, Mei nodding in concurrence.

"Found them!"

"Then put them on and LET'S GO!"

As more crashing ensued, Rika turned to Mei. "It was nice seeing you again, Mei-san."

"Of course, Rika-chan. Make sure to come by whenever you like. It's nice to speak with another woman sometimes."

Rika was about to ask after Jeri, another of their team who had moved to Matsumoto during D-Reaper and who she had limited contact with, when Takato bounded down the stairs, shirt straightened and ready to go.

He grabbed Rika by the hand, dragging her out the door and not letting her get another word in.

"Bye mom, love you, see you tomorrow, tell dad goodnight for me, love you, night!"

Mei watched the two take off down the street (Takato being surprisingly strong when he wanted to), and laughed at the sight they made.

* * *

**1917 Hours**

"Gogglehead?"

"Ya, Rika?"

"…what do you think about it?"

He stopped, looking over his shoulder at the surprisingly quiet and calm Rika. "Think about what?"

"…about what we found."

His relaxed expression slowly became down-turned, and he bit his lip. "Well… I guess that depends on your perspective."

"But… Yamaki is letting that _thing_ sit around, _running_, even if it is collecting dust!"

Takato shook his head, trying to offer her his usual encouraging smile. "Well, from what we saw, Juggernaut really was an extremely advanced piece of technology. It's dangerous, but there's probably some coding or something that was used in it that Yamaki or someone likes to reference."

Rika shook her head. "But—"

"Yamaki knows how powerful, how dangerous Juggernaut is," Takato cut her off, "probably better than any of us. He wouldn't let it activate, not ever."

As Takato began walking again, Rika ran forward and fell into step beside him.

"…I wonder what that writing said?"

"…do you really?"

Rika snorted. "Of course, idiot Gogglehead. It was on _Juggernaut_. How can you not be curious?"

Takato shrugged, then spotted something in the distance. "Hey, Ryo!" He called, grabbing Rika's hand again and running forward. "Wait up!"

* * *

**1921 Hours**

Jaarin stared at her younger brother. A strangely happy younger brother. A disturbingly happy younger brother.

Normally, Henry being happy wouldn't have been such a scary thing, but he had been positively _floating_ when he came home earlier than morning from his sleepover at Rika's.

Which was extremely odd, considering that he had even wished his father a good morning—the father that he, as well as the rest of the ex-Tamers, had been giving the cold shoulder since the end of D-Reaper.

While Janyu had looked completely ecstatic by the turnaround in his son's attitude towards him, Jaarin had not been so convinced.

Another point of contingency regarding Henry's sudden newfound happiness was all the sleepovers he had been attending in the last few weeks. She had never seen him so happy as he was when he came back from them, continuously growing happier and happier as he went to more and more.

She suspected that, like most teenage boys when alone with a teenage girl, they weren't sleeping, but had nothing to prove it. Besides, his other friends, Takato and Ryo (both of whom were on Jaarin's 'guys-I-might-one-day-date' list) were also present at these sleepovers, leaving her to assume that either she was off the mark, or that the four of them had a couple skeletons buried in the closet.

She carefully kept those thoughts away.

So, though she was suspicious, she couldn't accuse Henry and his friends of anything without appearing too nosey, and the rest of their siblings, Rinchei and Suzie, were just happy that Henry was happy, Suzie having been too young to feel the betrayal that accompanied what Hypnos and the Monster Makers had done to rid themselves of D-Reaper.

"Henry! Are you sure you and your friends don't want to come with us?" Rinchei asked, sticking his head into the living room from the hallway.

Henry shook his head, setting down the bowl of popcorn that Jaarin had finished pulling out of the microwave. "Nah, we're good here. You guys have fun."

Both elder siblings blinked at his response, but then shrugged. Jaarin pulled on her jacket, Rinchei typing up his boots. "Just don't burn down the apartment, alright?"

Henry laughed, the first time they'd heard him so lighthearted in three years. "As long as you promise not to step on us when you come in!"

They opened the door to go out, Henry following them to lock it afterwards. "Tell Suzie, mom and dad I say hi, alright?"

Both siblings stared at Henry, but he just pushed them out the door, locking it in their faces.

"Did he just—"

"Yep."

"Really?"

"I heard him loud and clear, Rinchei. Can we go now?"

The eldest of the Wong siblings nodded, eyes still locked on the door. "Is he really getting over Ter—"

"Rinchei, MOVE IT!"

* * *

**2042 Hours**

"So?"

The blue haired young laughed, grinning at his three companions. "Yes…?"

They seemed far too excited for people discussing what they were, but then again, one had to be a bit crazy to willingly rush into hostile, potentially fatal situations with a small electronic device, a deck of cards, and a data-based creature. That or it was just the idea of being twelve years old with said data-based partner was still too novel, even three years later.

"What did he say?!"

Henry smirked, reaching over to pull a small recording device. Pushing 'play', he set it on the table between them so that everyone could hear. Janyu's voice echoed around the room, though complaining in the background was a constant distraction.

"_...and all the food was either smushed together or eaten or... I don't want to think about what might have happened to get some of the things in the kitchen looking like __**that**__. Anyways, Shibumi, Talley, and some of the technicians got together and waged war against Yamaki, refusing to work until everything in the kitchen, especially the food, was fixed. Yamaki had to shut the entire complex down and declare a state of emergency. We were just released from interrogation about ten minutes ago and we're all starving, so I thought maybe you and the kids would like to come out with us? We should even invite Henry and his friends along, too... well, if they can stand being around us. But whoever decided to go after the kitchen really knew their stuff: no programmer or tech is willing to work until all the coffee, tea, donuts, and everything else edible has been replaced and guaranteed to be restocked, and the Matsudas have refused to use their connections around town to get us said food at a discount unless we promise to start work on bringing the digimon back again."_

Silence permeated the room. Then Ryo let out a whoop of excitement. Henry laughed while Takato sprang up, grabbed the closest person to him—who happened to be Rika—and began spinning around the room in a circle with her. Rika didn't mind—so lost in her excitement that, to the surprise of Takato and the shock (and glee at the blackmail opportunity) of Henry and Ryo, she wrapped her arms around his neck and forced them to spin faster.

"We're gonna get our partners back!" Takato began in a sing-song voice, a chant taken up by the others.

"We're gonna get our partners back!"

* * *

**Notes**

**1)** Well, according to Wikipedia (it's completely useless for school, but for random facts? Love it!), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is actually made up of three seperate buildings, the split-towered building that we always see being only one of the three. Apparently, said tower(s) only has... forty, fifty something floors. Then again, this is wikipedia, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate that is... it looks a heck of a lot taller than just having a max of fifty-something, so I sort of... made it taller. Heh. Oh, and the tower-building and the second-tallest building both have floors underground (I think it was three each, if not more for the tower-building), so that's at least a bit accurate.

Well, this really was a crack piece. This is what I get for writing with prompts, maybe. I_really_ wanted to try to use those prompts literally, but it was hard enough to work sneaking into Hypnos, food-related things and socks into this in general, let alone in their original context.

This was _not_ what I had in mind for these prompts when I first found them, but eh, who cares. I consider this one of my… how shall we say, more interesting (read: stupidly entertaining) pieces, and a worth addition to my Prompt Project.

Anyways, for those of you who didn't get it… why the heck were you reading this?

So, this (or parts of it) was influenced by some pictures I found on dA recently (erm… by the author of Digital Shuffle… actually, they were fanart for Digital Shuffle… then again, since it's by the author, wouldn't it be concept art?). Thanks to _famira_, I have rekindled my love for something else in the world-destroying category: JUGGERNAUT! It will (re)join the ranks of people/things I fangirl over and everyone else seems to hate, like Ragnarok, Megidramon, Dartz and the Orichalcos (feel free to laugh at that), the Grave Virus Beast, and ShineGreymon: Ruin Mode.

Also thanks to her, I have another plot bunny attacking me. It will not be looked at until later, if it is at all, but this could, potentially, end up being the first chapter of another random story. Yay random stories.

I should probably go read Digital Shuffle, actually… though I get the feeling it is yaoi-esh….

For those of you who've bothered to read this far (and actually care about what I'm writing), I decided to add an extra little piece on for you, to sort of wrap this up-slash-provide a kick-off to any possible continuation of this. This is also an 'explanation' piece that doesn't really need to be actually included in the story (since I tried to make it obvious that this is just one more piece of information that Takato would try to shoulder all by himself).

…I'm wincing just thinking about writing a continuation of this….

* * *

_She felt something poking her in the back. Rolling over, she tried to push it away, only to find her arms captured in someone's grip._

"_Leggo..." she murmured sleepily, only half awake and not feeling threatened enough to force herself any further out of sleep._

"_Crabon-data Fusion Entrance," a voice whispered in her ear._

"_Wha...?" She responded unintelligibly, beginning to fight off the desire to go back to sleep. "What're ya talkin' 'bout...?"_

"_You asked what it said. 'Carbon-data Fusion Entrance.' That's what it said."_

_She found herself being dragged out of her half-aware state, her eyes blinking to try to clear her vision. "Carbon-data wha...?"_

"_Fusion Entrance. CDFE."_

_Pushing herself into a sitting position, Rika looked around her. Henry, Ryo and Takato were sprawled out in their futons around her, the living room furniture having been pushed out of the way to make room. The clock on the VCR-DVD combination told her it was nearly 3 am, a time she remembered from the day before when they had left her house to—_

_Suddenly awake, she looked down at Takato again. He was sleeping surprisingly close to her for someone who liked living, hands and arms spread out like the Crucifixion. However, he was definitely sleeping (and dreaming of Guilmon and bread based on his mutterings, something that Rika was tempted to record so she could laugh at him later)._

_If he was sleeping, and they were the only two who had seen Juggernaut's physical form, then who had said that...?_

"_CDFE," Rika repeated, frowning out the large windows at the lights of the city. "Carbon-data Fusion Entrance." The words sent chills down her spine._

_She lay back down, pushing Takato's hand away from her body. She was still tired, though now rather disturbed. She mused that she probably wouldn't get back to sleep that night._

_She did._

_Her dreams were nightmares._

* * *

So? How's that for creepy-esh? Please, we beg you, review and laugh at us! We like being laughed at! We are horrible writers, and therefore only write to disturb ourselves with said horrible writing!

…or something like that.


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